Great review. Wonder how sketchy will it be pointing a Raptor down the Skyline course in Nozawa! I rode uninc / trice / summit in nozawa and never have a board that i'm confident in riding skyline course straight!

I am a big fan of the RaptorX 169 for all around freeriding. It took a little getting used to the Rocker-Camber (RC). I found narrowing the stance just a bit and riding with slightly wider knees really helped; I was able to engage the tip and tail more and get the responsiveness and stability most think is not possible without traditional camber. Sorry the YouTube video isnít as good as I would like, the hill was too flat to really get the Raptor up to speed and carve aggressively at the same time. When i am out in Colorado i can really push the board and it answers.2011 01 07 Squeeky Cam F 02 - YouTube

For float in powder I tend to just grab the NS Summit 172. The wide and more pointed shovel tends to promote more float, and I donít have to spend time taking the riser plates off, or setting my stance back. I find that bigger guys can ride smaller boards in powder if you set your stance back a bit. The tail will sink, itís a bit of a trade off, and I find it helps relieve stress on an injured back knee. And the shorter boards are a lot more maneuverable around rocks or in tight trees. If you donít spend much time riding switch (less then 15% I donít think the set back is much of a loss). But with the large soft shovel the effective edge suffers. So carving on Groomer is not as fun as the Raptor (duh itís a Powder board). With this board I donít need to search for a 180 cm plus board or a swallow tail (I have a bad habit of snapping off split or swallow tails).

For a fun toy I have the Proto, it can do everything regular and Switch. See my previous post.

I tend to like the NS boards as they use a pre-tensioned pre-impregnated glass and carbon fiber. This means as soon as the board flexes the tension is take up by the glass. With wet laid glass the initial tension is taken by the resin, then the cloth. This leads to a lot of resin fatigue (my experience with Burton, Rossi, Nitro, Lib Tech, and Winterstick), creating a soft or noodle-ie / dead / unresponsive feel a lot faster. In demoing other boards I ended up going over the nose at some really inopportune times Ė where if I was on an NS I would have been fine. I also found NS boards give back what is put into them. On groomed runs I could hammer the Raptor into any carves and it wanted more. The Summit was looking for powder as much as I was. And the Proto just put a smile on my face.

I am a big fan of the RaptorX 169 for all around freeriding. It took a little getting used to the Rocker-Camber (RC). I found narrowing the stance just a bit and riding with slightly wider knees really helped; I was able to engage the tip and tail more and get the responsiveness and stability most think is not possible without traditional camber. Sorry the YouTube video isnít as good as I would like, the hill was too flat to really get the Raptor up to speed and carve aggressively at the same time. When i am out in Colorado i can really push the board and it answers.2011 01 07 Squeeky Cam F 02 - YouTube

For float in powder I tend to just grab the NS Summit 172. The wide and more pointed shovel tends to promote more float, and I donít have to spend time taking the riser plates off, or setting my stance back. I find that bigger guys can ride smaller boards in powder if you set your stance back a bit. The tail will sink, itís a bit of a trade off, and I find it helps relieve stress on an injured back knee. And the shorter boards are a lot more maneuverable around rocks or in tight trees. If you donít spend much time riding switch (less then 15% I donít think the set back is much of a loss). But with the large soft shovel the effective edge suffers. So carving on Groomer is not as fun as the Raptor (duh itís a Powder board). With this board I donít need to search for a 180 cm plus board or a swallow tail (I have a bad habit of snapping off split or swallow tails).

For a fun toy I have the Proto, it can do everything regular and Switch. See my previous post.

I tend to like the NS boards as they use a pre-tensioned pre-impregnated glass and carbon fiber. This means as soon as the board flexes the tension is take up by the glass. With wet laid glass the initial tension is taken by the resin, then the cloth. This leads to a lot of resin fatigue (my experience with Burton, Rossi, Nitro, Lib Tech, and Winterstick), creating a soft or noodle-ie / dead / unresponsive feel a lot faster. In demoing other boards I ended up going over the nose at some really inopportune times Ė where if I was on an NS I would have been fine. I also found NS boards give back what is put into them. On groomed runs I could hammer the Raptor into any carves and it wanted more. The Summit was looking for powder as much as I was. And the Proto just put a smile on my face.

Here is a quick shot of me on the RaptorX 169

FUCK YEA MAN!

Welcome!

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